Compassion leads to less absenteeism and burnout:

One of the most significant findings in the study was that a culture of companionate love reduces employees’ withdrawal from work. Barsade and O’Neill measured employee withdrawal by surveying workers about their levels of emotional exhaustion and by studying their rates of absenteeism. They found that units with higher levels of companionate love had lower levels of absenteeism and employee burnout. The researchers also discovered that a culture of companionate love led to higher levels of employee engagement with their work via greater teamwork and employee satisfaction.

This makes so much intuitive sense - it's too bad so many companies don't operate according to this model.

And it's a FREE incentive!

Yep, free to share in unlimited supplies. I remember reading an article by Eric Barker where he mentioned that having 2 friends at work gave you a 90% chance of being happy in life. We spend a lot of time at work. Having a compassionate environment makes a huge difference.

"Having 2 friends at work gave you a 90% chance of being happy in life." <--- WOW.

If you ever find that reference again, please let me know. I'm searching but I can't find it!

I actually misremembered the stat. It's a 96% chance of happiness if you have 3 friends at work (I assume  Facebook friends don't count :-)) 

Here is the link: http://m.pandawhale.com/post/31064/how-to-make-friends-easily-and-strengthen-the-friendships-you-have

Thank you Rich!

Friends make us happy and staying in touch every two weeks is what keeps friendships strong. Working with your friends makes this very easy (and passive.) http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/07/make-your-life-better/

That totally makes sense. It seems that we'd all be happier if we looked at work as another place to have friends and not just co-workers. When we went to college, we probably thought this way -- we wanted our classmates to also be our friends. Why not have the same attitude at work? I believe it's possible if we put our minds to it!

I think you're both right.

And I made a new page with the factoid as a title:

http://pandawhale.com/post/40635/if-you-have-three-friends-at-work-youre-96-more-likely-to-be-extremely-satisfied-with-your-life

That way I can search for 96% and find it! :)